I promised that I would note tributes to Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, who died last week. National Review has a fine selection of remembrances from people like William Bennett and Newt Gingrich. My favorite in that batch is from Michael Novak:
“After four years of a foreign policy described by Margaret Thatcher as ‘Lose a country, gain a restaurant,’ Jeane Kirkpatrick insisted on respect for the United States at the United Nations, on straightforwardedness in talking to this nation and about this nation, and on integrity in matching words to actions. No more of this double dealing — with one hand begging the United States for aid, money, food, aircraft, military intervention — and with the other hand slapping the cheeks of this nation in public, and (until Jeane came along) with impunity. Jeane said to the United Nations: ‘Play it straight, and play it fair.’ To the San Francisco Democrats (no longer her kind of Democrats) she said: ‘They always blame America first!'”
In “Life with Jeane,” The Standard’s Claudia Anderson offers an insight into the private Jeane Kirkpatrick.